there's frequently been questions about the proper way to integrate flash movies into the ubb, using flash animations for certain graphics (in place of standard jpgs and gifs).

i was wondering if someone (with my help, if need be) could produce the conclusive "flash integrated modification" -- providing (perhaps) a way to enter the flash animation's name (with a .swf extension) directly into the control panel's style sections, as if it were a "regular" graphic.

this would allow people to easily use flash as their header graphics, posting buttons, smiley faces, etc, etc.

and, the hack will become more and more useful, as more people become familiar with flash.

so, consider this a HUGE request, from your pal, rob

methinks the subjects "flash" wording frightened prospectors away.

come now, no one daring enough to accept the challange?

me am not to smart on duh hackin, but, im pretty good with flash, and would be able to help out wherever possible, on that front.

i think it'd be a useful hack... especially for me!

I would help in whatever way is possible Rob...

first step would probably be to check the codebuttons modification for v6, as I am sure they have already gotten this added in, would just be a matter of pulling the appropriate code out for use in a "flash-only" install...

Hmmmm, maybe this site will give ya guys an idea of what might be possible with a Flash-enabled UBB

http://www.x-pressive.com/flash/main.html

Kickass implementation, and I'm sure it's very possible to integrate this into UBB6 (at least, I think it is).

canis: tho disturbingly cool :), that site is a lil beyond what i was talking about. if y'all know how to create it, im all for it! but, its a little TOO much... for now anyway.

i was referring to more of just a way to encorporate all (or some) flash graphics in place of the current graphics boards now feature. (so that all / some buttons, smileys, header graphics, new folder icons, etc, would be fully working SWF movies, instead of jpg / gif graphic files).


allen: i've always been "against" ubb code buttons, just because they add a whole buncha too-complicated features n'such. then again, i've never actually utilized it, so, im not exactly sure of its capabilities. it is possible tho, like you said, that all that was needed would be to "steal" the code from there.


overall, im just excited about the potential my lil proposal would allow. i've used flash movies as my header files before, by going in an hacking the html part of v5's code...

but, having the ability to just pop in "header.swf" (or "newtopic.swf") into my control panel's style settings sounds fantastic!

again, like i said, im pretty dumb when it comes t'all this crazy template n'cgi stuff. so, i dont know exactly how this "pop in" thing would work (is it possible to create settings option fields next to each graphic name field in the CP? since flash movies have parameters to be sized differently, or looped, etc. or would it be possible to setup up several field "options" per graphic, so that you could easily switch back n'forth between jpg and swf, if you wanted a different look.)

but, hey, if y'all are willing to help create this as a cool ass mod, ill do anything i can! just point me in the right direction

it's just a matter of using the piece of code from the codebuttons that allows .swf's to be posted by the ubb.. I would imagine it's in the ubb_lib.cgi, tho I haven't looked at it... lemme know if you run into speed bumps.

here you go, insert this in ubb_lib.cgi:


your .swf's should work now... lemme know.

this... you... it... here....

this wasnt here before?!

6 hierarchical menu trees created? ..what the...

well... ANYwho...

hh! i didnt even get a chance to start workin on this, and you're done!!

im gonna go check this out. you rock, allen!

allen, my friend...

just about to mess around with this...

does this allow poppin in SWFs in the control panel (as if jpgs/gifs) for header graphics and/or posting icons? (which is my final goal)

nope

i get a broken image pic (upper left header)

http://www.robkamphausen.com/cgi-bin/testubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

hmmm.. it seemed like a good idea.

I don't know why it doesn't show... are you putting the flash files in the same directory you would put your old .jpg's in? Then just putting robsboards001.swf in the title graphic box...

yessir. i done do'ed that. i too am upset over it not workin (as that'd just be TOO easy! :))

a question, tho...

when you enter a graphics name in that box (in the CP), it automatically enters it into html code, right?

for example:

header.gif - gets popped into - <img src="HERE">

however, flash files dont look like that. y'cant put header.swf - <img src="HERE"> because its not the right code. y'need all that "embed/object/paramname, etc, etc" garbage.

...helpful?

[ March 27, 2001: Message edited by: drkknght ]

wow, that forum is WOW!

how the HELL did they do that?

guh?

[arrogance]...um... well, i guess I'm wow![/arrogance]

forums would be better, were there more flash involvement. we'll blame that all on allen, tho. its easier.

You should be able to edit the public_common.pl file to support any flash files you want for your logo, etc... the code I gave you was more for the thread posting. Look for the common header part of that file and find the img src= section of that that controls the logo up top. You can change that to a flash src= whatever you normally put there (embed, etc) and then just name the file in your styles, you can change it to whatever you want or make several style templates and switch occasionally.

Has anyone had any luck figuring this out yet. I have a little flash movie I would like to put in place of the default gif in the upper left of my UBB....

This stretched screen is getting on my nerves...

You will need to edit public_common.pl in the title table section. This piece wil need to be edited so that you can include flash files there:



basically, you'll need to edit the <img src= to whatever call you make for flash files... leave the "$vars_config{NonCGIURL}/$vars_style{BBTitle}" part unchanged so you can change them in the control panel if you want.

oh, but allen, its so much deeper than that (i agree about the screen, btw!)

swf flash movies have more parameters and settings than jpgs and gifs. most importantly, size. there is no "default" swf size. (like, when you pop in a header.jpg, it comes out the size of the jpg. when you pop in header.swf, it goes to whatever size it wants... unless you specify it in the HTML parameters).

so, what i wanna look into creating is a CP accessible flash... thing. so that, in style settings, next to header graphic, you'll get a entry box entitled "flash file" (for your .swf) and two other boxes for height and width dimensions.

same type thing for all the other options (new topic button, reply button, etc)

...problem bein, i dunno how to mess around with the CP. i can make extra fields, but... i dunno how to actually have'em appear in the CGI script (or, the template... or whatever).

***in addition to all that garbage, id like the template to be able to accept both swfs OR jpgs (so, maybe add a whole extra text field where you can type in a jpg/gif name, in case you dont have a swf for, say, the new topic button. that would really just be whats there now, and we'd be adding the flash-enabled text boxes to the originals

Almost done, do you read minds Give me a day or so testing and I'll release this. VERY EASY! UBB6 ROCKS!

Specs on what I am working on
So far just the header will have the option to be a flash graphic or an image (your choice made in the cp and can be set to be different for each style)
I am coding it so that you can set the background color and sizes (which will work for the images to to help speed up page loading slightly).

It has a toggle switch to pick between image or flash titles too

Also thinking ahead and setting up a script that will let you pass a variable into flash to use as either text to be displayed or just to control which scene your movie will play upon loading.

After I test this I'll look into adding more button options (which will be cut and paste coding from that point)

for the love of...

sweet!

can i say i made it?